1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electric connector configured so that a terminal part of a cable-shaped signal transmission medium is coupled to a conductive contact mounted on an insulating housing, and method of manufacturing the electric connector.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, connecting a cable-shaped signal transmission medium formed of a coaxial cable or the like to a circuit substrate side via an electric connector has been widely conducted. For example, an electric connector has been known with a structure in which a plug connector to which a terminal part of the cable-shaped signal transmission medium is coupled is inserted to fit in a receptor connector implemented on a circuit substrate side. This electric connector has a structure in which the terminal part of the cable-shaped signal transmission medium, such as a coaxial cable, is coupled by soldering or the like to an exposed surface of a conductive contact buried in an insulating housing of the electric connector.
The conductive contact buried in the insulating housing extends in an elongated shape from a rear end side portion to which the terminal part of the cable-shaped signal transmission medium is coupled to a front end portion toward a fitting-in counterpart connector side. Conventionally, to make the insulating housing and the conductive contact strongly mounted, a protruding contact engaging part is provided to the conductive contact itself, and a part of the insulating housing is covered with the contact engaging part to allow the conductive contact to be held by the insulating housing, thereby preventing peeling-off. Examples of providing a contact engaging part to the conductive contact in the manner as described above include a case in which the conductive contact is caused to protrude on both sides in a plate-width direction (refer to Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 05-062733) and a case in which protrusions are provided in a forward direction orthogonal to a plate-width direction of the conductive contact (refer to Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2001-023717).
However, the contact engaging part for use in the conventional electric connector is disposed at a part to fit in a counterpart connector or near that part. Therefore, while it would be possible to prevent the conductive contact from being peeled off on a fitting-in part side with the counterpart connector, the rear end side portion of the conductive contact to which the cable-shaped signal transmission medium is connected is not sufficiently held. That is, although the conductive contact for use in the conventional electric connector has a structure of being held by the insulating housing, holdability of a connecting part of the cable-shaped signal transmission medium is not sufficient. Therefore, when an external force due to so-called flapping or the like is added via the cable-shaped signal transmission medium, the conductive contact may be disadvantageously peeled off from the insulating housing.
Moreover, the size of an electric connectors in recent years tend to be decreased, and the conductive contacts are arranged with narrow pitches. Therefore, as described above, in the conventional structure in which a contact engaging part is provided to the conductive contact itself, it is difficult to increase the amount of protrusion of the contact engaging part, and it is also difficult to increase the amount of engagement between the contact engaging part and the insulating housing in a width direction of the conductive contact to more strengthen the mounting between the conductive contact and the insulating housing.
The cited prior art are listed as follows.    Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 05 (1993)-062733    Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2001-023717